Bitwarden does everything Dashlane does, better.
That’s the end of the post. You can go home, now.
If you want a further breakdown, consider these points:
Security, most important, most overlooked
From a pure security standpoint, it’s a toss-up between Dashlane and Bitwarden. Both offer best-in-class security, so your passwords are safe on both.
Bitwarden offers 2FA auditing at the organization level for business users, while Dashlane does not. Enforcing is on the roadmap.
I would add that Bitwarden can offer a little more peace of mind for two reasons:
1. It’s open source.
A great many of you just sighed, but it being open source means it can be checked constantly for issues. The source for all their software is here.
This also means that if Bitwarden doesn’t have a feature you like, or something works in a way you don’t like, you can just change it.
2. It’s self-hostable.
Some hacker is far more likely to attack the behemoth that is Dashlane with it’s millions of user passwords, than they are to attack your little server with your 1000 passwords (at best). This also means that you are in control of your data, which is good news for the tin-foil hat wearers out there.
You can even get Bitwarden’s paid features for the price of hosting your server by following this guide
Nobody cares about security, though, right? So let’s move on to the good stuff:
Features, the good stuff (also price)
Bitwarden offers every feature Dashlane does with loads more on top of those, and more of them for free. It’s paid version is also cheaper than Dashlane’s.
Here’s a table I stole, that compares both service’s features:
| Feature | Dashlane | Bitwarden |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome support | yes | yes |
| Firefox support | yes | yes |
| Edge support | yes | yes |
| Safari support | yes | yes |
| Mac OS, Windows support | yes | yes |
| Linux support | poor | yes |
| Mac OS command-line client | no | yes |
| Windows command-line client | no | yes |
| Linux command-line client | no | yes |
| Android support, including auto-fill | yes | yes |
| Android auto-fill in Chrome | yes | yes |
| Auto-fill in Android work profile | yes | yes (1) |
| Android auto-fill shows full usernames | yes | yes |
| iOS support, including auto-fill | yes | yes |
| Two-factor authentication | yes | yes |
| YubiKey support in browser (Enterprise) | no | yes ($) |
| YubiKey support in browser (Personal) | no | yes ($) |
| YubiKey support in Android | no | yes ($) |
| YubiKey support in iOS | no | yes ($) |
| Saved password in Android, iOS | yes | yes |
| Fingerprint login in Android, iOS | yes | yes |
| Synchronization across devices | yes | yes |
| Import from LastPass | yes | yes |
| LastPass import distinguishes work from personal items | no | no |
| Preserves LastPass folders in some way when importing | doubtful | yes |
| Personal linked account support (or the equivalent) | poor | yes |
| Save location (personal vs. work) specified at creation time | no | yes |
| Save location (folder / collection / space) editable in web app | no | yes |
| Sensible password quality checks for master password | no | yes |
| Password history on Linux | no | yes |
| Password history on Windows, Mac OS | yes | yes |
| Secure notes | yes | yes |
| Attachments on notes on Linux | no | yes |
| Attachments on notes on Windows, Mac OS | yes | yes |
| Shared folders with access control on Linux | no | yes |
| Shared folders with access control on Windows | yes | yes |
| Shared folders with access control on Mac OS | yes | yes |
| Items can exist in multiple groups with distinct access control | no | yes |
| Nested folders | no | yes |
| Resists auto-filling invisible forms | yes | yes |
| Browser plugin only fills selected form | unknown | no |
| Browser plugin displays icon in form fields | yes | no |
| Browser plugin prompts to save new sites on Linux | yes | yes |
| Browser plugin prompts to save new sites on Windows, Mac OS | yes | yes |
| 2FA integrated into login entries in vault (Mac OS, Windows, iOS, Android) | no | yes |
| 2FA integrated into login entries in vault (Linux) | no | yes |
| Auto-fill in browser disabled by default | no | yes |
| Auto-fill in browser can be disabled by preference | no | yes |
| Admins can reset passwords | yes | no |
| Admins can access other people’s unshared credentials | no | no |
| Admins can reset other people’s 2fa | no | no |
| 2fa can be enforced at the organization level | no | no (3) |
| 2fa can be audited at the organization level | no | yes |
| Exporting items on Linux | no | yes |
| Exporting items on Windows, Mac OS | yes | yes |
| Password health reports | yes | yes ($) |
| App export includes attachments | unknown | no |
| CLI export includes attachments | no | poor (2) |
| Responsive to bug reports and feature requests | unknown | yes |
| Open source | no | yes |
| Option to self-host | no | yes |
| Users can delete own account (customer service not needed) | yes | yes |
| Admins can delete business account (customer service not needed) | yes | yes |
| Has a useful status page that can be subscribed to | yes | no |
| Number of outages in the past six months (since December, 2018) | 12 | 0 |
| Enterprise price per user per month | 4 | 3 |
| Personal price per user per month (no Attachments or YubiKey) | 4.99 | 0 |
| Personal price per user per month (w/Attachments & YubiKey) | 4.99 | 0.84 |
Note 1: In work profile apps Bitwarden might not pop up a dialog automatically inviting you to auto-fill, but it’ll display a notification you can tap to do it.
Note 2: CLI allows individual attachments to be exported. The user would have to write a script to iterate through and export all of them.
Note 3: On the product roadmap, not yet implemented as of writing (Click to see the feature request)
Extra notes
If you aren’t interested in either Bitwarden or Dashlane, or just want to see what else is out there, Consumer Advocate wrote a great article breaking down a bunch of password managers by their price, feature-set, overall user experience and more. It’s a great read, click here to check it out.